Let's see, I have been with Donner now for about 8 months. He and I had worked the ammo dump at Long Binh, then we volunteered to go to Tay Ninh to walk the ammo dump up there. We had to go up there on a armed convoy of trucks. My 2 buddy's, Lin Harding, and Jim Johnson and their dogs all in shipping crates, alot of stuff for the detachment. Sgt Dobash even got a hotwater tank (where he got that I have no idea). We were crossing through Ho Bo Woods, when BANG!! I was hit in the back by something that pitched me into the center of the truck. What happened was, when Sgt Dobash tied the hotwater tank down he didn't tie off the ends of the straps and they caught around the axle. It crushed the tank and broke the side wood. That's what hit me in the back. Lucky I was wearing my flack jacket. It also snapped off the stock of my m-16 rifle. I also lost my helmet. That was just getting to my new detachment.

The next night Donner and I was walking the new ammo dump at Tay Ninh. At Long Binh we only saw enemy fire on the 1969 Tet. Up at Tay Ninh, nightly rocket attacks were a common occurrence. We also had snipper fire from the rubber tree plantation bordering the one side of the ammo dump. At Long Binh we walked on a road, at Tay Ninh we walked next to the wire with a burm of dirt with bunkers on it to our rear. Claymore mines (5 in front of each bunker), and we walked in front of them. Totally different than being at Long Binh.

I have written all of the above to illustrate how I relied on Donner all the more now. One time I left a bunker and started to the wire when I started to get AK-47 fire. Donner and I hit the ground real quick. The bunker guards were all yelling for me to get down. I just layed there petting Donner's head and waited for the snipper to stop shooting. After awhile I got up and walked my post. We did this for months. I would sit down at times and we would just talk. Donner was a good listener. I would tell him about my hometown, my family, my girlfriend. I told him my hopes, dreams, everything!! Oh, how I wished he could have talked back to me. That's what alot of people just can't understand about the feelings we had for our silent partners. We'd even share the c-rations we took out with us for a snack.

Well, now it happened. One night I got Donner out and we were going out on 1st shift. Donny Ort ,Bill Bennett and me were going to take some pictures before we left for the dump. All 3 of us with our dogs posed for the pictures. When I look at the 2 pictures today, I can never forgive myself for not seeing how Donner was so sick. The second picture Donner just falls over, and you can see the shocked expression on my face. I called the Vet Tec (Sharon) and we brought Donner into the Vet Tec's room and he took his temperature. He was really sick!! They had to get a replacement for us. I took Donner to his cage and the Sgt called to Long Binh and requested a chopper in the morning to take us to Long Binh. That night was really bad.

I sat with him in his cage with his head in my lap. I talked to him until I started to cry.I've never told anyone about this, until now.I still to this day think I should have seen or known he was sick!! The day before he seemed OK. Well, the next day we had to get to the chopper pad at the evac hospital.I put Donner on the deck behind the two pilots seats. Alot of wounded guys were placed on stretchers.Off we fly to Cu Chi Basecamp to pick up and drop off some guys, then we flew to Long Binh. The pilot of the chopper was petting Donner and he acted like it was his own dog, I could tell he felt bad. Long Binh had 2 major hospitals, we landed at the first hospital and the interns came running out and took the last guys off and ran back into the hospital. The pilot asked if I wanted to put Donner on a stretcher and we did and then flew to the last hospital. When we landed the same thing happened, out ran the interns as fast as they could to get the wounded. The crew chief jumped out and the interns just stopped and stared at Donner on the stretcher. The pilot opened his door and yelled to the interns to get the stretcher off and that the dustoff was for the dog. They put Donner on the gurney and ran back into the emergency ward and me following with Donner's medical records.

As usual the Army screwed up. I was a PFC and I was surrounded by all officers. I must say that Army Doctors are a different breed of officers, their pretty nice.They all started looking at Donner's records and we very surprised how good they were. One Col. was showing the records to other officers and he told them "In all his years in the Army he had never seen such well kept MEDICAL RECORDS "! (Did a jeep, or a truck, or any other military equipment have MEDICAL RECORDS ???)

One woman Major fell in love with Donner there at the People's Hospital.

Finally a Col. told me they had contacted the Vet and he was on his way to pick us up. He finally came and picked us up, the doctors wished us luck and we left. At the Vet's he started putting an IV in Donner's leg and that's when the feeling came over me that I wouldn't see Donner again and I had the Vet's assistant take the last 2 pictures of me and Donner together. My company sent a jeep for me and I had to leave Donner. At the company my First Sgt. chewed me out for not having my equipment with me.

A few hours later I was summoned to the orderly room and was informed that Donner had died. I was also told I would select a new dog tomorrow, and will be going back to Tay Ninh in 2 more days on a convoy. Later that night, alone I went down to the training area and under the stars I just cried.